Ye Ai Qin is a pretty mommy who is crazy about singing, especially contemporary hits, and has won her first ever prize in a singing contest this year.

Although it was not the first prize, it was regarded as a motivation and encouragement for her to move on.

Ye began dabbling in singing contests only this year and the minor prize she won had a profound significance on her anyway.

She revealed in an interview with Sin Chew Daily that she had fallen in love with singing ever since she was young. However, she started joining singing classes at the invitation of her friends only three years ago.

After attending the singing classes, she realised all of a sudden that singing was not an easy task as it required the harmony of the degree of lip-rounding and tempo etc. Even if there were plenty of skills to be learnt, she found the pleasure in learning them.

The English-educated Ye is using phonetic symbols to help her in her singing lessons; hence she needs to put in greater effort to have the singing skills in hand.

She has a preference for contemporary hits especially the one by Karen Mok, He Does Not Love Me.

47-year-old Ye has three daughters and a son while her better-half, Chen Jin Long, is the owner of a furniture store in Ipoh and the deputy chairman of Perak Furniture Association.

She said singing was a lot of fun and because of singing, she had expanded her social life.

Her latest target is to take part in as many singing contests as she can because this is the main motivation force to impel her to sing well.

A family of beauty queens

Boasting a brillant look and enviable figure, Ye won the championship of Malaysia's Most Beautiful Mum in Penang in June, and the title of the Most Beautiful Mrs. Malaysia in Ipoh in July.

Both her eldest and youngest daughters have also yielded exceptionally brilliant results in beauty contests.

Her eldest daughter, Chen Min Yi, 25, was the second runner-up at the World Model Contest Malaysia 2003 and the first runner-up at the Miss Tourism Malaysia in Sabah 2004.

Her youngest daughter, Chen Min Yi, 21, was the World Model Contest Malaysia 2008 champion, and one of the top 30 finalists at the final pageant in China.

Ye admitted that other people had suggested that she take part in a beauty contest when she was young, but because of family objection, she gave up the idea and involved herself instead in part-time modelling. Thanks to the encouragement from her children and friends, she recently made her first move by taking part in the Most Beautiful Mrs. Malaysia contest.

To Ye, nothing comes more important than her children's education and she has her own ways of educating her children.

She revealed, "My opinion is that the children must at least have their university degrees before they can freely decide on their favourite fields or future careers. Wisdom is important to a person and I have laid a lot of hope on their academic performances, thus it is essential for them to excel in their studies."

A university graduate from Australia, her eldest daughter is currently a qualified accountant in Australia. Her second daughter, Chen Shan Yi, is also a university graduate while her youngest daughter is currently pursuing a business course at one of the local universities.

By looking at Ye's fair complexion, we could see that she is very much concerned about her youthful look. Her secrets are having a balance diet, minumum eight hours of sleep each day and a passion for belly dance as this can realign the shape of her body until it becomes fit. All these have made her look more confident when performing catwalks on the stage. (Translated by LIM LIY EE/Sin Chew Daily)